peyote bracelet (beadlady pattern)

This took about a day to make. I love it. It uses Delica, and size 11 and size 8 plus some crystals. I also used my Toho 1g thread which works beautifully.

long twisted bugles

I found these bugles in Singapore and at the time was too new to know what to do with them. The other day I realized I could do ladder stitch with them and then add other beads in brick stitch. The crystals were added every other bead not in brick stitch.I was thinking of adding some pink beads on top but Tami said better as it is.

Video review of Dominick: cables, diamonds, herringbone

A good basic intro to the world of ganseys.

Swarowski and Delicas bracelet

I'm planning on making more of these. I'm using the Toho 1-g thread which is fanstasic to work with. It doesn't fray, is easy to thread, doesn't make knots. Perfect for me. There are 12 colors at this time. It's made of nylon a nd seems to go a long way.

bugle bead brick stitch bracelet

The bugles are in an interesting color variation and it was something I just made without a pattern and decided to make my own toggle instead of adding something in gold. I am thinking of making a few more with different colors.

crocheted baby blankie for a boy

I used the final pattern: 101 in the 101 stitches for afghans book by Jean Leinhauser. The yarn was a cotton/acrylic called Topacio by Valeria di Roma bought from Elann. I think it's a good one for a baby and easy for the mommy to take care of.

Shelridge Farm Strata pullover by Lucy Neatby

I originally bought the Neatby bicycle sweater but found it would be too much work plus I stopped riding my bicycle anyway. So I contacted Shelridge Farm and they were very nice to me sending me the instructions for the Strata sweater plus a little more wool to complete it. I decided it would be nice as a raglan so changed the instructions using my J. Fee book for that. I did follow the row color guide exactly though. It's a nice medium weight sweater not as warm as my arans but definitely useful.

EZ hand to hand aran pullover

I started this sweater some years ago with the online email group but after doing one sleeve, I stopped and only picked it up again recently. I am very satisfied
with it after I made one change. I added ribbing for a neckline to make it warmer for me. I also found one mistake in the pattern added across the front and back from the Barbara Walker book. There's a mistake in row 2 and the last k2 shouldn't be
there. I did follow the pattern otherwise for the largest size for 42" chest. I used Forsell Slalom aran yarn bought on Elann also many years ago a nd I needed 15 balls of 50 grams each at 90 meters each. Needle size was 4mm and ribbing 3.5mm. I made my sleeve 17" long and the front and back sections were 24" long with about 8" for the neckline. The left sleeve came in a bit less than 17" but it doesn't seem to present a problem. For the bottom I changed from her instructions to do a hem with a thinner yarn and instead just decreased the stitches 10% and did a k2,p2 ribbing. My length on the body section was 14" total. It could have been a bit longer. I may decide to make it again but I don't want to make that lattice section from the BW book. I found it difficult to remember and had to use a row marker in order to do it right. The other cables though were nice and easy making it a fairly quick sweater to make. I never did understand EZ's final notes about making the sleeves narrower at the top as it seemed to be just fine as it was.

Crocheted shawls - book review

Crocheted shawls is one my latest purchases and it's from the Vogue Knitting on the go series. I want to make most of the 21 projects! That's amazing for any book and especially for this series which usually has just a few items of interest in each book. Most of the shawls are on the difficult side and many use unusual techniques also such as broomstick lace. Most of the designers are young and new such as Kristin Omdahl who has the broomstick shawl and the spiral shawl. The granny square shawl is a sort of cape. There's an interesting round medallion shawl. Others with motifs are the star shawl and the spiraled flower shawl by Robyn Chachula, another new designer to watch. Suzanne Atkinson, of the Rowan group, has two lovely ones.Doris Chan is also in this book. The only shawl I find unattractive is the aran shawl so this book is definitely a must if you're into crocheting shawls.

Climbing the ladder

This is by Victoria Pearlman in the Step by step beads for Nov/Dec 2007. I will probably make it again. I'm using just ordinary beads of which I have a lot so this will be good to do with some of my other ones as well. It was quick and fun. First you do the bugles lines in ladder stitch and then you hook them together with the seed beads.

embellished square stitch by Jiron

I finished an embellished square stitch bracelet from the latest Step by step beads by Regina Jiron. I just had the right beads for this one and it was a nice fast project that I will enjoy wearing.

knitted dolls

Why are patterns for knitted dolls done in lots of little pieces? Crochet is done spirals in the round. I think the Germans knit in the round also. Makes more sense to me.

Roberti crystal bracelet

This was a free online bracelet by Roberti. Took just a few hours and I'm very pleased with it.

poor blogger

I'm sorry about not blogging for so long, but I've been really busy with my crafts and stuff. Right now I'm beading every day and also trying to develop my own fairisle cardigan. I've done most of the design on the body with one more section still to go and hopefully I'll have enough of the yarns because if not, I have to change some designs to other colors.

I'm also working on an Aran pullover for my daughter and finished a small version for my granddaughter. Then I started making a crochet doll and am now very interested in doing more crochet toys as opposed to knitted toys. It just seems more organic to make them the crochet way where you crochet around all the time. With knitting the patterns are done flat and then joined. I imagine one could also do them around, but I haven't seen any patterns done that way.

I taught myself to do hairpin lace from a website and bought the Boye fork but it seems very flimsy when I use it.

I've done a lot of book reviews for Amazon but I think it's time I began to write a few on my own blog. I try not to buy yarns but when it comes to books and patterns, I haven't declared a diet yet. Today I just got the latest Evelyn A. Clark book on triangular shawls.

Bead lady bracelet

Cathy Lampole, bead lady, designed this bracelet using Delicas and Swarowski crystals. I first ran into it on a friend in London. I just finished it today and it took me about 3 days as I'm not all that fast with peyote and delicas. The central Swarowski section went quickly though. I plan on making more of these.

necklace based on "white Russian book"

I've seen this pattern used in Bead and button and I made it first from there. Then I went to the white Russian book and found the pattern the way it is here which I think is much better. When you use the bugles, you don't see the bead thread.

cabochons

I made these two cabochons in class. It turned out to be lots of steps, but all pretty easy. I have to go make more of them.

peg loom

This is the peg loom I bought at Missenden. I think it might come from Wales although a family in England made it. Mine is 20 pegs but right now I'm only using 12 of them to make a scarf. It's so easy to do as you just put the yarn around the pegs with your fingers. I'm hoping to use my leftover yarns on it.

Missenden Abbey

Well, I'm back from 2 glorious weeks studying at Missenden Abbey in England. One course was goldwork embroidery for the second time and t he other was beading around a cabochon. I learned the idea on the first day having never done it. The rest of the week was spent refining it and making 9 of them. I still need to do the simple necklace chains though. Food was wonderful also and we were busy all the time. I was fortunate in getting a larger private room (#51) off by myself. There were lectures every night and sellers sometimes. Liz Mann demonstrated one week how to use a peg loom so I bought one. I should have bought another hoop for my goldwork as the two I own are too big. My friend Tami was also there and we b oth were in the same classes and stayed together in London at the st. Giles hotel which is wonderfully located within walking distance of the beadstores.

Tel Aviv Eretz Israel Musuem goldwork exhibition

The picture below is the front cover of the catalog and the exhibition officially opened last night. I spoke to the curator a few times. It is an amazing exhibit and the catalog is very good. There are 7 articles both in English and Hebrew and a bibliography plus 104 photos of works exhibited all in color and actually easier to see than in the musuem because everything was kept dark. The articles include religious and clothing items plus others and they come from many countries where Jews lived such as the Middle East, northern Africa and parts of Eastern Europe. The cost for the catalog is 100 shekels and I'm sure it could be ordered from the bookstore at the museum. I will also add a few more of the photos from the book. The items are goldwork embroidery using lots of threads such as Japanese gold plus some beads and other materials. The level of craftsmanship is very high and most of the items were made over 100 years ago or longer.

Goldwork embroidery exhibit book

handbag

finally. I'm able to upload pictures again. wonderful. I have no idea what was wrong or what is right now but played around until suddenly it began once more. This bag is my first and I'm unhappy about the way I did the lining and the handle. Lots of room for improvements.

crocheting shawls

I'm not able for some reason to upload the picture of my new cotton shawl that I crocheted. The pattern was from Leinhauser/Weiss: 100 crochet projects. Now I'm struggling with a simple pattern from the Harmony crochet book called shell and v. The pattern is basically one row which repeats after the first one. I think it has a mistake though. But realizing that 7 balls of cotton (120 metres each) wouldn't be enough, I went back and am now struggling to make it a triangle which means basically inc one shell or v at each end every other row.

Beading: I got into stringing finally after just doing beadweaving. It's a rapid way to make necklaces using bigger beads a nd a good way to use up my beads. Or it would be but I have to buy more beads to finish off the ones I have. I'm not sure this will end anytime soon. One of the big stores in downtown Tel Aviv is going out of business and I found a terrific size 6 gold seed bead from France for half price so had to return again to pick up more w hen I saw how nice they were. Of course, there were other good beads that I also had to bring home. I finally taught myself how to make dangly earrings with chain so now everything is dangles. I'm making matching earrings for some of the necklaces. However, I really need to move on to working with my crystals.

Knitting: I'm making an aran cardi for dd in cotton using the famous Paton's pattern http://www.patonsyarns.com/patternbook.php?PBS=500989%20. This one is so easy and fast to make. I did change the moss stitches on the ends though to rev st st. The pattern is on the back of the booklet and is called must have cardigan.

Swarowski bracelet and earrings

The bracelet was for me and the earrings match a bracelet \I made for my daughter. I adapted a necklace pattern by Sheilah Cleary from Beadwork, June/July 2003. I didn't have the Beadalon wire so I used Fireline 6 lb in crystal and two needles.

Diet lemonade

I'm tired of diet coke. I couldn't find a good recipe for diet lemonade so I came up with my own and it's very nice.
3 lemons squeezed = 1/2 cup
1 1/2 cup water (I use cold mineral water )
1 tsp of sacharine or non sugar sweetener
Just mix and it's done. You might need to add more sweetener because not all lemons are equal nor are some of my teaspoons!

yarn for Quartz vest

Reading top row l. to r.: cream 1a, seaspray 1291,

indigo 135, dark green 58. Second row: pine forest 82, ocean 33, pale green FC24, oyster 1284, russet 1286, natural 202, salmon 1289,

sage 141 and moss 29. Dark green and Pine forest are really close in color. The pine forest seems to have a bit of some other color added but otherwise they appear to be the same.

Quartz vest

Quartz vest from Celtic collection c1992 published by Tomato Factory. I bought it there at that time along with the book and it seems like a lifetime when a younger me made the decision to buy both of them. I feel as if that younger me gave me now a very big present. It's probably the oldest fairisle project still waiting to be done in my stash and I've decided that the time has come to knit it. At that time I bought enough to do the largest size and now since my children live in the far East where it's so warm, it will be made to fit me so I'll have a few extra balls. I notice that quite a few of the colors are going to be discontinued. 33 ocean is going, 1286 russet, 1289 salmon, 135 indigo, FC 21 lilac, dark green 58. Only 8 colors will still be available. Each label was for 1 ounce or 150 yds. When I bought the yarn from the store, it was still J&S but even then I now think it was undergoing a transformation to Jamieson. AS was the milk cow and she was being milked. I think her complaints were justfied as I look back 15 years later. But the store disappeared and the milkers lost their cow too. No one profited including the knitting world. Not only did we lose AS but we are now probably losing J&S as well. I am just very happy that I was lucky enough to be on the spot and had the good sense to buy this stuff then. I also bought several other items from that book and have made them long ago. I made Rannoch and have enough to make it once more. I made Marina twice, Luskentyre (still have to finish), allover vest and sweater, Catriona (have it in my stash still), Mara vest made and twice the Mardi gras cardigan. I'm thinking of making Mara vest once more for myself.

Tunisian baby blanket

I used 2 (100) gram balls of each color and a bit more than that for the gold. It's Teddy's wool classic (240 m in 100 grams). Hook was 5mm. Each section has 22 sts and was 82 rows long. Then I did sc around each length and then connected them. Then sc around again a few times and finally the crab stitch. The Tunisian stitch was the regular one and I just alternated the colors every two rows on the blue/red secions. Finished dimensions: 36"x36".

hooks and needles

From the left are Clover hooks, bamboo Tunisian hooks from Hamanaka and a 40cm circ bamboo hook also made in Japan. I've used the Tunisian hooks and they are wonderfully light and have decent hooks. I bought them at Cheer wools in Hongkong.

interesting circular needle

This circular needle, size 4.5mm, has 3 lengths which screw in to the bamboo points. It's made in Japan as is the Clover item which is meant to hold together the needles when not knitting.

Japanese yarn purchases

These were bought in Hongkong at various stores. The two on the right top are summer. Suvin gold is a nice cotton, very soft. The top one is a cotton and linen. Yarns on the left from top to bottom are Diakeito or Diamond yarns. Top is mohair and wool, bottom is 100% wool and bottom right hand is a wool,silk and mohair mix.

J&S discontinued colors

I got this colorcard from J&S today and it shows those colors in jumper wt being discontinued. This is based on some accounting done by the parent company which bought J&S and which has no idea about fairisles. It is a complete disaster to those of us who knit them and love them.

Back again in Hongkong

Since my earlier posting, I managed to see new places and travel quite a bit. I left Hongkong for Jakarta where I stayed with my son for a few days. Together we traveled to Perth in Australia where I had never been. Perth's airport is quite small and rather nice. Budget rental had closed down at 10pm but
Avis agreed to rent us a car and with key in hand we went out to the lot and the car answered the key signal so off we went to Fremantle. We stayed at the best hotel there and I really walked around the place. I did find a LYS about half a block away which was well stocked with the latest yarns. I also found some used knitting books and was quite happy with them also. I did try to locate gold threads for embroidery and found a little
but it was rather disappointing. Beads: I went to the largest store and found that the prices were high so just bought a small amount. In Perth, I ate in Chinatown, but mainly I traveled on the suburban train system which was quite good.

After some days my son rejoined me and we headed off to Singapore where we stayed at the Intercontinental and I got to use their rooftop pool which was quite lovely. I went to the places I wanted to go and didn't have a lot of time so all my hours were really spent on this. I got to Borders which is absolutely amazing. All the needlework and crafts books are in the same area so this time it only took me 2 hours to go through them! Last time it was a 4 hour job. I was disappointed in the main with the books because they were pretty bad. All the newest books were there but it seemed like none of the good ones were. These books had perhaps one or two projects worth doing and the rest garbage. Quickie books. Also many books for the new knitter.

I did see one beading book which I should have bought. It was about $60 Singapore which kept me from buying as I thought I might find it later on Amazon. But no such luck so far. I didn't make a note of the author or title but did notice that the publisher was from Singapore and the author had a Chinese name like Han. It was written in English.

The next day I got to the Golden dragon in Chinatown. The yarns were disappointing also. Mainly lots of Rowan yarns and a few Japanese but not very interesting ones. So I went on to buy the Delica beads that I liked and they were nice enough to refund me the 5% tax from their till.

Finally I got to the Japanese bookstore where I found lots of great knitting books in Japanese. I did check the knitting section for the English books and noticed that their selection consisted of really good books but all of them had been wrapped!

We left Singapore and headed on to Jakarta. This time I stayed one week. I didn't like the transportation system as the roads are very clogged and it can take hours to get anywhere. I found a good place for Swarovski crystal beads on the way to Chinatown and checked out some of the recommended yarnstores and also the Japanese bookstore which seemed to be about the same price as in Singapore although they have a 10% sales tax as opposed to the 5% in Singapore.

My son made sure I got to eat a lot of Chinese food and the restaurants were very good. I also swam a lot at the 4 seasons hotel and they were quite lovely also. My son has a car and driver who drove me everywhere and also a lovely woman who cleans and cooks for him.
both spoke passable English and were very pleasant. I met up with my friend Tanti who I had met two years before and she took me twice shopping and introduced me to the beadstore which because of her gave me a 20% discount. I got to several of the malls which are really interesting. Some are very lavishly done up with gorgeous marble floors and others are hot and crowded with as many as 1000 stores all crowded around. I also got to the annual crafts fair with artisans from all over Indonesia displaying their wares.

I met my son's two great friends. Both are fluent in Indonesian and were very interesting. One of them is doing a 90 minute documentary on the street musicians in Jakarta and I got to watch a short digest of it although it's still in editing stage. I was absolutely fascinated and hope to see it when it's done. It had one fantastic scene in a local jail.

I didn't enjoy having to brush my teeth with bottled water or the pollution. But the people were very sweet and somehow they managed under difficult conditions. Many people are very wealthy also and are seen in the fancy malls and restaurants. Others can be seen on the roads. I did stop at one place after I saw shop after shop of used bookstalls on the road. I looked for English books and did find some, but nothing I wanted.

I got to the National musuem which had two treasure rooms full of beautiful articles in rare metals. There was also a room with huge maps showing Indonesia and it is really big too. I also climbed up to the National Monument which is quite a phallic symbol but I didn't bother with the ride to the very top.

Next time I go, it'll be time to explore other parts of the country such as Bandung and Bali.

I exchanged presents with a crocheter in Surabaya which is perhaps 1000 km from Jakarta. I used an interesting service to mail my package called "Tiki". I was also fascinated with some of the ways that the people use to solve various problems. For example there are lots of people on the roads who for a small fee will help the driver get back into the traffic from a parked position or to do a u-turn. or on one road where 3 people are required in a car, someone jumps in to ride along for pay. I also thought that the extra faucet next to the toilet was very useful as it is sort of like a bidet in function.

The wood of course is gorgeous. My son had a chest he paid $25 for which was heavily carved. His apartment had very high ceilings and the liv room windows had panes of colored glass. Because there are so many drivers, there are facilites in all the places for them. My son's bldg which had 4 apts, also had places for the drivers and workers to eat and sleep. While I was shopping, my driver was near the car and I would phone him when I was ready, but I also could have had a front desk call him on the loudspeaker. These desks are in the front of each mall. Many of the residences have doormen who open up the gate for t he cars to enter and leave.

There are almost no public parks and the only green areas are quite private or governmental but closed to the public. I didn't notice any ambulances on the roads, but apparently if one gets sick, you do go to the local hospital. I did see lots of drugstores.

Many people working in the shops can speak some English so language is not a problem. And perhaps they have some kind of inferiority complex as they want to be told how nice they are which I did tell them. I also found that they are quick to smile and also respond nicely to the same. since the weather is so hot everyone dresses in light clothing and since there is a lot of rain, umbrellas are pretty standard. I did notice in one heavy downpour that it was a lot easier to progress as most of the very numerous motocycles stopped and took shelter. I got a kick though out of seeing a bicycle traveling along. The passenger in the rear held up an umbrella over himself and the peddler.

One very interesting form of transportation is the 3 wheeler. It is apparently some kind of motorcycle but with 3 wheels. It is not air conditioned but can maneuver into much tighter areas. They told me it was brought from India.

There is a lot of street food which I didn't eat as I was worried about problems with it. But it seems very popular. The difference in income level is tremendous and there don't seem to be any kind of welfare programs. However, I didn't notice any beggars or other signs of misery. I did see a lot of people working very hard and very long hours and I think the populace is very capable and working under very hard natural conditions of climate, etc. I also noticed lots and lots of banks although Tanti told me that a lot of them had consolidated.

I did enter the country very quickly when I first came with help from my son's hotel friends and when I departed, one of them took me all the way to the business lounge and helped me as I had managed to lose the little piece of paper you get when you enter. The lounge is very good as it has decent bathrooms which are lacking in the public area.

Although this is mainly a Moslem country, the people seem to be rather blase about religon except for the usual small amount of fanatics. Women go everywhere and seem to suffer no discrimmination. The Chinese are a small minority but with most of the country's wealth and since there were bad riots back in 1998, they are quite aware of additional problems although they were quck to say that most likely it couldn't happen again. The Christians seem to be very interested in Israel but since there are no relations between the two countries, very little is actually known about Israel.

So now I'm back in Hongkong with my daughter and granddaughter who is just over 5 weeks old and absolutely beautiful. She is a sweetheart, very smart, and enjoys kicking and hitting out with her fists although she generally makes connection only with her own face! A few more days here and it's back to Israel.

Hongkong

I'm spending the week in Hongkong with my daughter and seeing my new granddaughter. So far I've managed also to get to 3 yarnstores and also look at the beadcenter in Kowloon. I bought some Diakeito yarns and some baby yarns plus some 16" circs and several new to me Japanese stitch books. I think the best solution for me personally are the stitch books rather than the pattern books. Each stitch book has about 300 stitches whereas one pattern book has only about 20 patterns. Plus since I can't read Japanese it's very easy for me to figure out the charted stitches but to make the sweater as written wouldn't work well as I'd have to redesign it for me anyway.

I was disappointed with the bead center as I was trying to find Delica beads. I did find a few stores that were selling what looked like Japanese seed beads but nothing was labeled and anyway I have found better back in Israel. Most of the beads I saw were Chinese, Taiwanese or Indian. I also found a wholesaler with Japanese bead books but again nothing struck my fancy.

I did finally finish the 4 color baby blanket for Asya but my daughter prefers a cotton yarn for now in a simple lacey pattern, but not too much lace. So I found this: http://www.knitlist.com/00gift/round-baby-blanket.htm
I had to restart the pattern several times until I finally got it going. I was using dps and had a few problems until I used a stitch marker for the beg of the round and paid attention so as not to drop any stitches. After that it moved very fast and within about one hour after starting I was already working on a 24" circ.
The other item I'm carrying around is from Folk shawls by Oberle: the heartland shawl and here I'm using a stash yarn I picked up in Australia about 6 years ago. Just proves I do use my stash! It's a Patons 4 ply yarn in red and very lovely to work. The pattern most likely will take most of my 10 balls and I plan on doing the edging with perhaps a sock yarn 4 ply. I recall that EZ recommended doing shawls while traveling and it certainly makes sense as it takes up less room and gives a lot of knitting.

Glass beach finished

Glass beach from the Pacific coast highway by AS is an fo. I'm taking it tomorrow to my son. It came out exactly the size I knit at 52" around. My gauge was 7 sts = 1 inch which seems my normal gauge although sometimes I do reach 30 sts=4". The vest was washed and blocked before the picture and it always looks much better after that.

wearing the shawl

My friend Ronit kindly agreed to model the shawl for me.

Spanish christening shawl

I've been working on this shawl from "Folk shawls" by Oberle for over a year. It went with me to South Africa and back home again. The center diamond section is great fun to knit but the edging takes forever and also while I had 13 ball of Pomfret sport wt yarn (50 grams each), it ran out about 1/4 way on the edging. Fortunately my stash came in handy and I was able to work in 2 balls of a New Zealand yarn and then another ball of an Aussie yarn. If I were to make t his one again, I'd make sure I had enough yarn first or use something in an easily available color so I could make subs easier. This blue teal isn't that easy to find. It's a lovely soft wool yarn and I'm gifting it to Asya's mommy.

Asya

I'm a new grandmother and Asya arrived March 16th in Hongkong. She weighs 9 lb, 14 oz or 4.5 kilo and is gorgeous and wonderful.

more on Japanese books below

The first book has some really terrific lace sweaters. It's more of a winter book with two crocheted shawls and a crocheted scarf as well plus a nice fairisle sweater.
The second book is also more of a winter book with some lovely vests and some lacey sweaters.
Third book also winter with crocheted and knitted items including some nice crocheted shawls and several items in variegated yarns.
Fourth book is Diakeito yarns. This means variegated yarns for many of them. A gorgeous crocheted shawl, an entrelac pullover, two nice fairisles and lots of knitted lace and some cables too.
The next book is by Hirose and looks pretty challenging and gorgeous also.
Sixth book is labeled best select collection and must be some of the best from previous books. The models are older women and men which is great as the sweaters all look good on them. Cables and/or lace, sweaters and vests, scarves, hats and shawls.
Seventh book sweaters, vests and one shawl. cables, lace and some with variegated yarns
Eighth book is the Richmore big one. Lots of lace in this one.
Final book is another gorgeous one with cables and laces.
Overall these books are more for winter sweaters, etc. But you could just take the patterns and create your own as everything is charted out.
These were the best books that I was able to buy then and I was looking in Tokyo and in Hongkong so I really had full choices. I also brought back some other great fairisle books but that one is for another time.

Japanese lace knitting books

I bought quite a few Japanese knitting books in 2005 and some of them have great lace sweater patterns or shawls. The list is as follows by ISBN #
4-277-11382-6
4-529-04021-6
4-277-11371-0
4-277-11351-6
4-529-03437-2-6
(Mitsuharu Hirose)
4-529-03744-4
4-529-04024-0
4-529-04099-2 Richmore spring/summer 2005
4-529-03162-4

DOMY heather

3 skeins of Domy heather in bayberry color. Fingering weight. Each skein is 475 yds or 434 meters, 100 grams each. It comes from Old Mill yarns in Michigan and costs $7.95 per skein plus postage of course. I've got a pattern from Goddess knits called "Diamonds are a girls best friend" and this calls for 1120 yds in this weight of yarn.

Meanwhile my old friend, the Spanish christening shawl from the Oberle Folk shawls book, is nearing completion. I will finish the edging today. It looks really big and that's before blocking. This shawl traveled with me last year to South Africa and has been going all over Israel while I worked on the edging. The center section was much nicer to do and if I were ever to do it again, I would definitely do a smaller edging.

Glass beach

This vest is from the Pacific coast highway book. I haven't heard much about anyone doing it. Turns out to be a very simple quick one. The colors are very bright and rather unusual. But the patterns are very small in stitches and in amount of rows which makes it easy to do. I've added 16 more sts to the largest size and I figure I'm about 1/3 of the way up at this point.

Book published by Kangaroo in Australia in 1993. ISBN 0-86417-554-X
Good luck finding it!

entrelac shawl started

This entrelac shawl is done in a different way from most entrelacs because it begins at the v with a rectangle, in this case of 10 sts. Every row adds 1 or 2 rectangles. So far there are no triangles but the last row will be triangles plus some kind of edging as the edges are a bit raggedy. The yarns are Brown Sheep worsted plus the main color is teal c olor from Himalaya yarn co in the Tibet yarn which is 50% silk/ 50% wool. I picked up the idea from a few different books and saw a picture of an entrelac shawl on the jojoland site. Looks like it will be a pretty fast project which is good because winter seems to be nearly over here.

Color of handpainted yarn

The colors from left to right are: coral rojo, amazonas, blue cielo, thistle on top and lago del bosque on the bottom.

It's here!

Two deliverymen carried my little package to me. Tney told me that if it had come just from Europe, I would have gotten it within a day. It arrived before I had even finished the previous blog entry!

Handpainted yarn from Uruguay

I'm following the tracking of a shipment on DHL from Montivideo, Uruguay to me in Israel of handpainted yarn. It left Uruguay on the 16th of Feb and reached Cologne, Germany on the 19th. That day it got to Brussels in Belgium. On the 20th it reached Bergamo in Italy and late in the night arrived in Tel Aviv where it was sent to customs. Today, the 21st, it has left customs and should reach me by the end of the day. When it arrives I will take a picture. This is so exciting for me.

Meanwhile I've started an entrelac shawl in some yarn sent to me as a gift by Carol in the teal color. It's Tibet from the Himalayan yarn co which is 50% silk/ 50% wool. I'm using two books to help me design this plus I was inspired by a picture I saw on a site of jojoland of such a shawl. The new Elaine Eskesen book on Silk knits has a cover picture which uses the teal color which is what I have plus other brighter colors. I decided to use the teal as my mc along with stash yarns mainly of the Brown Sheep worsted yarns. Then Brenda Horne's book :Enjoy entrelac knitting (1993) has instructions to make a small purse and I have taken that as the base to make this shawl. I will have to add triangles at the top row and do some kind of edging also.

Armagh

Armagh is the Starmore sweater in her Celtic collection. I used Jaggerspun Maine dk (colors are black and royal) instead of the Rowan in the pattern. I decided to knit the sleeves separately knitting them from the ribbing up to the armcycle, so I got help from the fairisle email group who suggested I use the 3 needle bind-off to attach the sleeves to the body. It took me many hours but I'm happy with the result. I made the sleeves a bit longer as I'm gifting it to a wonderful woman/doctor who helped me solve a medical problem after my medical group came up with a really awful ultrasound that was very scary but turned out to be just fine at the end. Looks like I'll be around to finish a few more AS sweaters!
I also have decided I've been knitting the sweaters for myself too big. I lost over 10 kilo this past year but I didn't change my knitting size and I finally realized that my raglans are coming out much bigger than I need. So now I've started to change that and on the needles is a raglan that is about 4" less in the body and the sleeves will also be about 1" less and I think I'll also knit less rows before I begin the raglan shaping. If it works then I can knit the Mountain Colors yarn I recently bought which is just stunning.

Tunisian stitch baby blanket

I used Teddywools baby dk acrylic to make this simple blanket in two colors of pink.
I used 300 gr of the mc and just a small amount for the trim.

It's been a while

These were taken yesterday on an all day trip to the Judean desert to visit Christian and Jewish religious places. I had a great time and met people from Japan, Louisiana and NYC who were on other buses. I'm wearing my warmest sweater using Briggs & Little yarn in one of their patterns with bicycles. I was the only person in my group who was doing my crafts and several women came up to ask me what I was doing especially using my Tunisian 14" bamboo hook. I'm working on an afghan in Tunisian stitch and was also doing a garter stitch shawl using a very old white plastic circular needle. I think it was Susan Bates.
The trip was 12 hours and we took along our own food and drinks. We saw 2 monasteries. The most impressive one was very hard to reach and as it had been built from a cave in a rockface and was a long way from the road going downhill. Back was harder. We also saw a Greek Orthodox monastery and church and Qumram where the manuscripts were found. Everything isn't far from the Dead Sea and also from Jordan.